An upstate prison inmate who could’ve been paroled in January was arrested for rape – thanks to a DNA match almost six years after the crime.

Curtis Phillips, 30, was arrested Tuesday at the Otisville Correctional Facility in Orange County for a 1994 rape of a 15-year-old girl in the Bedford Park section of The Bronx

Phillips, who is serving a five- to 15-year term for robbery and was eligible for parole next year, “was very surprised” at his arrest, said Deputy Inspector Susan Morley of the NYPD’s Special Victims Division.